Dieting By the Numbers

This is how I figure out how many calories to eat each day.  I aim for a 500 calorie deficit.  I try to achieve that deficit in my workouts rather than under eating.  What I mean by that is that I eat my bmr in calories rather than eating 500 calories less than my bmr and not exercising.  I determine my calorie load by using this simple calculator.  Then do determine what my calorie deficit is, I add my calories burned from my workout (as told to me by my heart rate monitor.)  

Todays calculations look like this:

BMR is 1588

Calories burned is 611

Total calorie load is 1588+611

For a deficit of 500 calories= (1588+611) - 500= calories that I need to consume today.

1699 is my goal for today.  I will round up to 1700 calories.  Thats a lot of food btw.  Thats not a small amount.  If you eat clean, it is a large volume of food.  Which is a good thing, for me!

To determine how much food I will eat I start with my macro nutrients, protein, fat, and carbohydrate.  First, I look at what I have in the refrigerator in the way of protein.  Thats the most important component in my diet.  Its also the hardest to eat enough of, I like the protein power style of dieting.  They focus on 35 grams of protein per meal.  I don't always get that but that is my goal.  I use Fitday to determine how many calories and protein are in my food.